[ale] New Mailing List initiatives for ALE (last one, I promise)

[Jeff Hubbs]

I'm afraid that my position echoes Sean's and Jim Kinney's.  I'm not
seeing where a re-jiggering is going to improve anything. 

I note, much as Jim did, that eight years on the list didn't get me in
the "consultee's club" either.  Whereas I don't take that personally, it
does suggest that whatever consulting was done may have been done more
to seek support for the originator's foregone conclusion than to really
determine a consensus, deliberately or not.  To wit:  "I started taking
an informal poll around April...and got a startling congruity of
response."  Such is the danger of informal polls:  ask just the people
who already tend to feel as you do out of proximity and, unsurprisingly,
their consensus matches your predilection.

Both good and bad list members will come and both good and bad list
members will go.  Such is life.  I know that I get irritated when I ask
a question on the list and find that it gets drowned in a barrage of
off-topic or other AOL-worthy posts, but, damned if a life free of
irritation is not advertised as a benefit of the ALE list. 

I suggest leaving ALE's mailing lists as they are.  People are free to
create whatever new mailing lists they want and be just as fussy about
them as they please.  What's next, adopting a Linux distribution as the
"official" distribution of ALE?

- Jeff

Sean Kilpatrick wrote:
> On Thursday 28 September 2006 08:04, Jerald Sheets wrote:
> | What we have to realize, though, is there are clearly two very  
> | distinct camps with very distinct needs.  Inaction (i.e. doing  
> | nothing) will drive away a subset of users that have come here for  
> | help and either a) receive some with great difficulty of finding it,  
> | or b) get none with the added plus of being derided for asking simple  
> | questions (not my words).
>
> Jerald,
> First, let me state the obvious:  I am not a Geek. (IANAG) :)
>
> If it weren't for my son and the members of the ALE list,  I would be
> hard pressed to continue using Linux as an operating system.
> (I ran screaming away from Win95 to OS/2 more than a decade ago and
> hope and pray I will never have to go back to an M$ OS.)
>
> But I must say that I have never been insulted on this list.  My
> questions, basic or complex, have been answered without rudeness or
> attitude.
>
> If a poll were taken, I'd vote to leave the list the way it is. I
> haven't worn the paint off the "Delete" key yet and the only problem
> I have had with the fluff is the reluctance of some to CHANGE THE
> SUBJECT LINE when the thread wanders afield of the original topic. :)
>
> The Ale LUG _is_ community, warts and all. In its own way, Ale is
> sorta like a church: we have the entire range represented from
> theologians to those who can't even be bothered to actually read 
> the Bible/Manual.
>    And along that line of thought I was pleased to see that I am not
> the only one who has been late to discover the "info" pages -- and
> that they are (sometimes) more up to date than the man pages. :)
>
> Sean
>
> Note:  The only reason the paint hasn't worn off my "Delete" key is
> that this six-year-old keyboard is an IBM model and is built like 
> the proverbial masonary men's restroom. 
>
>   
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